There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
1) As an item in my emergency preps. For which, a headlamp that has NO drain on the batteries is necessary (Petzl has been my go-to for this). In this use, I'm looking for a headlamp that has long battery life (6-8 hours at medium brightness, 20+ hours at low brightness), it can support rechargeable batteries but it MUST support readily-available primary batteries as well, preferably AA (but AAA is also acceptable). Light output should have a low-light mode (around 20 lumens or lower) as well as a medium bright mode (under 100 lumens). High lumen output is not required. Beam pattern should be evenly distributed and optimized for walking distances where seeing 5-25yds is typical (so, not a flood beam and also not a spotlight beam). A slight hot spot in the middle with good fill is preferred.
2) As a work light for very frequent use. For this purpose, the ideal headlamp would support a rechargeable battery, but would allow spare rechargeable batteries to be swapped, so my work is not stopped because the battery is dead. The beam pattern for this should be very wide and optimized for work from 0-15yds typically with a medium (under 100 lumens) to high (100-200 lumens) output and a runtime of at least 3-4 hours at medium brightness.